A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"MAYA AND FREEDOM. 189practical wisdom, and never was it more before the worldthan in this nineteenth century, because never wereblows hitting harder than at the present time, neverwas competition keener, never were men so cruel to theirfellow-men as now, and therefore is this consolation offered.It is the strongest at the present time, and it fails, italwaysfails. We cannot hide carrion with roses ;it is impossible.It would not avail long ; one day the roses wouldvanish, and the carrion would become worse than everbefore. So with all our lives ;we may try to cover ourold and festering sores with cloth of gold, but therewill come a day when the cloth of gold is removed, andthe sore in all its ugliness is revealed. Is there no hope ?True it is that we are all slaves of Maya, we are all bornin Maya, we live in Maya.Is there no way out, no hope? That we are all miserable, that this world is really a prison,that even ourso-called trailing beautyis but a prison-house, and thateven our intellects and minds are a prison-house, havebeen known for ages upon ages. There has not been aman, there has not been a human soul, who has nottalk. Andfelt it sometime or other, however he maybecause in them is thethe old people feel it most,accumulated experience of a whole life, because theycannot be easily cheated by the lies of Nature ; Maya slies cannot cheat them much. What of them ? Is thereno way out ? We find that with all this, with thisterrible fact before us, in the midst of all this sorrowand suffering, even in this world, where life and deathare synonymous, even here, there is a voice that isgoingthrough all ages, through all countries, and throughevery heart. This my Maya is divine, made up ofqualities, and very difficult to cross. Yet those that come